Solved – Recover Files After Converting External Drive to ESD-USB

Problem: Last week, I used an external hard drive (1TB) to create installation media for Windows to do a clean install of Windows 10 on my laptop. However, after completing the installation, my hard drive came up as ESD-USB of 32GB.

What happened to my hard drive? What should you do if you converted the external hard drive to ESD-USB by mistake? In this situation, can you recover files after converting the external drive to ESD-USB with ease? What’s more, is it possible to restore the external hard drive to its full capacity? Now, in today’s post, we are going to show you how to effectively recover lost files from the ESD-USB 32GB drive as well as how to revert the ESD-USB drive to normal.

Part 1. Recover Files After Converting External Drive to ESD-USB

No doubt, we can create a Windows bootable drive by using some tools like Microsoft Media Creation Tool and then use the created drive to clean install Windows 10. However, most users reported that their hard drive (neither external hard drive nor USB flash drive) came up as ESD-USB of 32 GB after creating this installation media, according to a survey. As a result, they could not find their original data stored on this drive. Therefore, more and more users want to know whether they can recover lost files from their drives.

Now, the good news is that MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a piece of professional and free data recovery software, can help to recover files after converting external drive to ESD-USB easily and quickly. This file recovery software supports recovering all kinds of files (documents, pictures, videos, audio, etc.) from existing partitions, lost partitions, as well as unallocated space.

Besides, this all-in-one program offers wizard-like interfaces and simple operations that can help you complete data recovery without any difficulty. What’s more, it is a read-only tool. In other words, you can use this all-in-one program tool to perform secure data recovery without bringing any damage to the original data and the disk.

Next, let’s see the detailed steps of data recovery.

Step-by-Step Guide to Recovering Lost Data After Converting Drive to ESD-USB

Before you do:

Download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free.

MiniTool offers a free edition and multiple advanced editions to cater to the needs of different users. If this is the first time you use this software, you can download its free edition to have a try. The free edition allows you to recover 1 GB of data without any cost.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1: Connect your external drive to your computer, and then launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery to get its main interface. Next, browse all the displayed disk partitions and find the partition from which you need to recover data based on the drive letter and other disk information, then click Scan.

Alternatively, you can switch to the Devices tab, select the whole disk, and click Scan to scan the entire device.

Step 2: Wait patiently until the full scan finishes to get the best scanning outcome. Typically, MiniTool Power Data Recovery will find and list a large number of files on the scan results page. Therefore, to locate the desired files faster, you can turn to the Filter feature to filter unwanted files by file type, file size, file modification date, and file category.

Moreover, suppose you need to recover a specific file or folder and you remember its name, you can type the keywords of its name in the search box to search for it.

If you do not know whether a file should be recovered, the feature Preview makes it possible to view it before recovering. Multiple types of files can be previewed, including documents, videos, photos, archives, and more.

Step 3: Choose all needed files, and then click the Save button to store them to a safe location. Do not store the recovered files on the ESD-USB external drive since you need to revert it to normal.

This is all about how to recover files after converting external drive to ESD-USB.

Good News! By using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, I quickly and effectively recovered files after converting the external drive to ESD-USB without damaging the original data.Click to Tweet

After recovering lost data, let’s see how to fix this issue – accidentally converted hard drive to ESD-USB.

Part 2. 4 Ways to Fix – Converted External Hard Drive to ESD-USB Mistakenly

Listed below are several ways to help you restore the ESD-USB external hard drive to its full capacity.

Method 1: Create a New Partition

In general, since you have recovered lost data by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can directly create a new partition while keeping the Windows restoration partition.

Step 1. Open Disk Management by using the Windows search box.

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated space and then click New Simple Volume.

Step 3. Click on the Next button.

Step 4. Type in how many MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) you want to use from the unallocated partition to create the new partition, and then click on the Next button.

Step 5. Select an available drive letter, and then click the Next button.

Step 6. Type in a volume label, check the Perform a quick format box, and click the Next button.

Step 7. Click Finish.

Method 2: Recover the Lost Partition

In fact, ESD-USB is only the name of the Windows installation file and it is on its own disk partition. When creating this installation media, the tool erased all partitions and then it made this new ESD. Your data and files are still on the disk if you haven’t created a new partition on this disk but Windows can’t see them. When you open the disk manager you should see unallocated space behind your ESD-USB.

As long as you can see the missing space on Windows Disk Management, you can try to recover lost partitions by using MiniTool Partition Wizard – a professional partition magic. Its Partition Recovery feature can recover lost partition and lost data at the same time as long as the data has not been overwritten.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard. On its home page, click Partition Recovery from the top toolbar. Then click Next to continue.

Step 2: Select the disk from which you want to recover partitions and click Next.

Step 3: Choose a scanning range from Full Disk, Unallocated Space, or Specified Range, and then click on Next.

Step 3: Select a scanning method, and then click Next.

Step 4: Once the scan is completed, check all needed partitions, including existing partitions and deleted/lost partitions, and then click the Finish button.

Step 5: Assign a letter for the recovered partition(s) using the Change Drive Letter feature if you want to see the recovered partition(s) in Windows Explorer. Finally, click the Apply button to complete the partition recovery. Note that if you are using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free, you need to upgrade it before you can save the recovered partitions.

Method 3: Format It to NTFS

Sometimes, after converting the external hard drive to ESD-USB by mistake, you will find the drive shows up but is RAW.

In this case, you need to format the disk to another file system like NTFS for further use. You can format a disk in various ways.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

To format your disk, you can turn to Disk Management, DiskPart, MiniTool Partition Wizard, or other disk formatters. Among them, MiniTool Partition Wizard, free and professional partition magic software is strongly recommended since its wizard-like interfaces as well as simple operations can help you easily and quickly format drives.

On the main interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard, choose the disk partition you want to format and scroll down the page to select Format Partition from the left menu bar. Then follow the instructions on your screen to complete the format process.

Bottom Line

Have you ever mistakenly converted your hard drive to ESD-USB? What should you do if your external hard drive shrunk to 32GB? Now, after reading this post, you should know how to restore hard drive to its full capacity as well as the secret of how to effectively, completely, and safely recover lost data after converting the external drive to ESD-USB.

Should you have any questions or suggestions about MiniTool tools, you can directly contact us via [email protected]. We will solve your issues as soon as possible.